There is a problem of transforming an image. such as by scale, rotate, translate, etc., when the original image is in a compressed format. If the printer has limited memory., the image has to be transformed in-situ, because there is no space available to decompress the image fully for transformation. Image transformation is a common operation in postscript based printers. The transformation problem arises even in the simple case where an image in portrait mode is to be printed in the landscape mode. This corresponds to a 90° rotation transformation and is a common operation in printing. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that current compression methods, like Joint Photographers Expert Group (JPEG), are not designed for random access. Image transformation schemes often must address the source image in a random fashion. In such compressed formats this requires multiple decoding passes through the compressed source image.